Autographic register and the like



Feb. 5, 1952 F. E. LANEGAN ET AL AUTOGRAPHIC REGISTER AND THE LIKE Filed April 9, 1947 4 Sheets-Sheet l a. a akd cwmhm' ma m' LUMGAQM +0.11%

1952 F. E. LANEGAN ETAL 2,584,212

AUTOGRAPHIC REGISTER AND THE LIKE Filed April 9, 1947 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 INveuv-on am M w-Al In e; M WV M Feb. 5, 1952 F. E. LANEGAN ET AL AUTOGRAPHIC REGISTER AND THE LIKE Filed April 9, 1947 4 Sheets-Sheet 5 IN l/CNT'O R 13 LOQLM M M vwdzam Feb. 5, 1952 F. E. LANEGAN ET AL 2,584,212

AUTOGRAPHIC REGISTER AND THE LIKE Filed April 9, 1947 4 Sheets-5heet 4 Patented Feb. 5, 1952 2,584,212 AUTOGRAPI-IIC'R-EGI STER AND THE LIKE Frederick-Edward Lane London, England, assignors to gan and Patrick Maguire,

W. H. Smith &

Son Limited, London, England, a British com- D l y Application April-9, 1947, Serial No. 740,450 In Great Britain Nvember15', 1946 2 Claims. (Cl. 271--2.4)

. 1 This invention relates to autographic reg ster of the kind (hereinafter referred tov as the kind described) in which continuous stationery is. fed step-by-step over a writing platen for the entry of records thereon, by rotary feeding means (e. g.

pin wheels engaging. marginal perforations in the stationery) operable by oscillatory movements applied to a shaft. It is usual in autographic registers of the kind described to employ a handle attached to the shaft for oscillating the shaft to effect the feeding of the stationery,.the handle being turned. by hand, for example through about one quarter of a turn, at each operation to feed the stationery and then released and returned idly to-the initial position by a spring.

According to the present invention an autographic register of the. kind described is provided with a pedal and driving means interconnecting the pedal and the oscillatory shaft aforesaid so that the shaft may be oscillated to. feed the stationery by means-of the pedal.

A difficulty which may arise. with a pedal operated register as just described is that if the movement of the pedal is positively limited to; that required for operation of the shaft the device will require great accuracy of adjustment and, iurther, excessive pressure may inadvertently be applied to the stop or other meanslimiting the pedal movement.

This dimculty is reduced or overcome in the referred term of the register accordin to the invention by the inclusion of a lost-motion device in the-interconnecting driving, means aforesaid whereby movement of the pedal in the operative direction by an indeterminate amount in excess of that necessary to rotate the shaft the amount required to feed thestationery one step will bepermitted, pedal being operative to rotate the shaft by the required amount and the remainder of the movement of the pedal being inoperative.

Preferably the lost-motion device comprises a toothed driving member (e. g. a quadrant) arranged for oscillation by the pedal and making toothed driving engagement with a toothed driving member (e. g. a wheel or quadrant) drivingly connected with the shaft, the members having only sufficient engaging teeth to rotate the driven member by the required amount. The driving member may have, at the end of the teeth, a portion, preferabiy blank, arouate about the axis of rotation which portion makes interfitting engagement with a concave arcuate portion, also preferably blank, on the driven member after the driven member has been rotated the required part of the movement of the amount and y suchinterfitting-engagement prevents rotaticn of the driven member while permitting continued rotation of the driving memher.

The invention may be embodied for example in an, autograp-hic register of the kind described in United States Patent No. 2,563,523 issued August 7, i951, and United States Patent No. 2,565,915 issued August 28, 1951. Such an embodiment of the invention will now be described by way of example,,and with reference to the accompanying drawings in which;

Figure 1 is a side view of the register and pedal operating means;

Figure 2' is a detail view of the pedal operating means before operation;

Figure 3 is a view similar to Figure 2 but showing the register operating means after depression of the pedal,

Figure 4 is a view similar to Figure Zshowing an alternative construction, and Figure 5 is a view showing the one-way clutch, this view corresponding to Figure 2 but showing the wheel 5 in chain lines.

The register comprises a casing I provided with a writing platen 2 over which continuous superposed stationery strips are drawn, step-bystep, bymeans of pin-wheel devices, shown at 3, of which the pins engage in marginal perforations in the strips. The strips are drawn from a zigzag folded pack located in a compartment in the register casing over the writing platen where duplicated entries may be made thereon and the uppermost strip, (or strips) is then ejected from the register and the lowermost strip (or strips) is directed into. a second compartment; where it is refolded into zigzag pack form to constitute a returned record of the entries made on the ejected strip.

The pin-wheel devices 3 are carried on a shaft which is intermittently rotated from an operating shaft 4 through a feed limiting device as described more particularly in the above-mentioned applications.

According to this example of the present in- I vention the pin wheel devices 3 are carried on a shaft which is intermittently rotated from a gear wheel 2| on shaft 4 through a feed limiting device as shown in Figure 5 and as described more particularly in the above-mentioned applications.

The device is located behind a gear wheel 5 as viewed in Figure 2 and is shown in detail in Figure 5. The device is similar to that shown in Figure 8 of U. S. Patent No. 2,565,915, granted August'28, 1951, except that the pawl HA, em-

ployed in the previous construction, is carried by the wheel 5 which is the equivalent of the handle I II. The gapped ring I03, employed in the previous construction, is formed on the gear wheel 2 I.

The toothed Wheel 5 is carried on the shaft 4 of the register in place of the normal operating handle and has a blank portion 6 over part of its circumference. Engaging the toothed wheel there is a quadrant 1 pivoted at 8 to the side of the register casing. The quadrant which constitutes the driving member for the feed limiting device has teeth engaging those of the Wheel 5, there being sufiicient teeth to rotate the wheel 5 through one quarter of a turn. Pivoted below the register on a cross shaft I attached to frame members supporting the register casing there is a pedal lever II which has a rod l2 connecting the end of the pedal lever remote from the pedal face to the quadrant. I

In the operation of the arrangemnt just de scribed depression of the pedal 1ever H from the Figure 2 position to that shown in Figure 3 is transmitted through the rod 12 to the quadrant I and raises the quadrant to rotate the gear wheel 5 through one quarter of a turn. After the wheel has rotated this amount the blank portion 9 on the quadrant comes into engagement with the blank portion 5 on the wheel (as shown in Figure 2) and continued movement of the pedal and quadrant is permitted to occur while at the same time the wheel is locked against rotation in either direction. On release of the pedal a suitable spring (e. g. a coil spring 20 around the pivot 8) returns the pedal and the quadrant to the initial position at the same time bringing the teeth on the quadrant into re-engagement with the teeth on the wheel-and returning the wheel to its initial position.

It is to be understood that the invention is not to be restrictedto the details of construction described in the above example. For instance in the above example the connecting rod is given an upward movement to rotate the quadrant in the operative direction. The construction may, however, be such that the quadrant and connecting rod move in the downward direction during the operative stroke of the pedal as shown in Figure 4.

We claim:

1. An autographic register of the kind in which continuous stationery is fed step-by-step over a Writing platen for the entry of records thereon, means for supporting said register in an elevated position, a rotary feeding means engaging the web, and drive means for said web feeding means comprising an arcuate toothed driving member mounted for oscillatory motion, a pedal conportion and which provides for non-driving movement of the driving member at the end of said angle of rotation.

2. An autographic register of the kind in which continuous stationery is fed step-by-step over a writing platen for the entry of records thereon,

'means for supporting said register in an elevated position, a rotary feeding means engaging the web, and drive means for said web feeding means comprising an arcuate toothed driving member mounted for oscillatory motion, a pedal constrained by the supporting means for vertical oscillation below said register, a vertically extending link interconnecting said pedal and said driving member, a rotatable toothed driven member engaging said driving member, a one-way clutch interconnecting said driven member and said feeding means, said driving member having toothed driving engagement with the driven member through an angle of rotation sufficient only to feed the stationery one step, said toothed driving member having a portion which is con tiguous with the toothed portion and arcuate about the center of oscillation of the driving member with the radius substantially equal to the radius of the roots of the teeth on the driving member and said toothed driven member having a concave arcuate portion contiguous with the toothed portion thereof which, at the end of said angle of rotation, mates with the arcuate portion of the driving member to provide for'non-driving movement of the driving member and locking of the driven member.

FREDERICK EDWARD LANEGAN. PATRICK MAGUIRE.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Sheppard et a1. Aug. 23,1938 

